Visit to Packaging Lab, where L’Oréal designs the next generation of cosmetics containers

Packaging is an integral part of a brand or a product’s DNA, and lies at the heart of most of today’s environmental issues. To create containers that strike the complex balance between performance, eco-design and desirability, global beauty giant L’Oréal has set up five Packaging Labs worldwide, in India, Brazil, the USA, China and in Clichy, near Paris. These Labs are home to 500 employees, whose job is to develop the packaging for L’Oréal’s 36 brands.

On Thursday May 23, L’Oréal took advantage of the concomitance with VivaTech, the Paris Innovation Fair held on May 22-25, to invite the national and international press to visit its Packaging Lab in Clichy, near Paris. The Lab was set up four years ago, and with its staff of 250 it occupies one floor within the operations headquarters of L’Oréal.

“Packaging is used to transport and protect a [product’s] formulation, but it must also be attractive and environmentally friendly. We must find the right balance between these criteria in order to create the packaging of the future,” said Jacques Playe, head of packaging development at the L’Oréal Group. He noted that, a few years ago, only engineers were involved in packaging development. After the Packaging Lab was set up, the development teams have become multidisciplinary, and include engineers, materials science specialists and industrial designers.

The crucial challenges are reducing packaging size and using sustainable materials. Especially since, by initiating the ‘L’Oréal for the Future’ programme, the French beauty giant has set itself the goal of using exclusively recycled or bio-based plastic for its packaging, and making its containers refillable, reusable, recyclable and compostable by 2030, when their weight should also be reduced by 20%.

David Guérin is a paper expert working in the Lab’s materials science section. He believes that paper is a material that can drive innovation and minimise the environmental impact of packaging. “[Paper] is used very extensively in the food industry, but less so in beauty, chiefly because of design issues,” he said. However, Guérin noted that things are changing. For example, a limited edition of Lancôme’s La Vie Est Belle perfume features a bottle with a cellulose shell fitting like a second skin.

Olivier de Lataulade, an expert in glass, a material that is widely used for fragrance and skincare bottles, said that the challenge is to make containers that are lighter and thinner without losing their appeal. A problem that now seems easier to solve through the adoption of refill bottles, for which consumers have much lower aesthetic expectations. “Sectors such as tableware and mobile telephony are now utilising ultra-light premium-quality glass, so we are going in this direction via a specific development programme,” said de Lataulade.

In the Lab’s UX (User Experience) section, a team of 17 designers is working on product shape and ergonomics. “Design goes beyond aesthetics, and it must incorporate technical and functional concepts as well as eco-design,” said Jordan Molinié, head of UX, citing the example of the latest liquid foundation by US make-up brand Urban Decay.

The foundation’s small PET bottle, when pressed, allows the user to release the liquid drop by drop, so that virtually 100% of it can be utilised. “Four patents have been filed for this product,” added Molinié.

To create moodboards that illustrate new trends, designers are resorting to artificial intelligence. “It’s a semiology-based work: we input terms like ‘elastomer’, ‘Gen Z’, ‘bottle’, and ‘soft’, and AI comes up with images. But you need a designer’s eye to identify what is viable in industrial terms. AI does offer solutions, but it’s our interpretation that makes the difference. [AI] is a tool that is of no interest if there aren’t people behind it, just like 3D printing,” said one of the studio’s designers. To date, L’Oréal is said to have never launched any packaging designed entirely with AI.

The Lab staff doesn’t just create brand-new packaging, they also redesign existing containers to comply with new standards and practices. This is notably the work of the 25 people in the technical packaging design section led by Luc Maelstaf, whose job is to take care of the technical design of new packaging, and to improve existing containers. For example, the weight of the bottle for Garnier’s ultra-soft shampoo has been greatly reduced by making its plastic cap, designed to make refilling easier, 30% lighter.

The list of skills and expertise which the staff working at L’Oréal’s Packaging Lab jointly deploy is long, including specialists in 3D printing, colouring, and packaging quality. In 2023, the L’Oréal group filed 55 new packaging patents, having launched 8,000 new products in the same year.